Episcopal Church completes divestment from fossil fuel industry

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church announced Dec. 11 that it had divested entirely from the fossil fuel industry – marking the culmination of a decade-long shift toward environmentally conscious investments and a significant milestone in the church’s more than 50-year history of socially responsible investing.

The catalyst for the church’s final push toward full fossil fuel divestment was an 81st General Convention resolution that bishops and deputies adopted in June. Resolution A129 set a Dec. 31 deadline for divestment while also calling on the church to “reinvest divested fossil fuel company assets in clean energy alternatives.”

To achieve that goal, the church’s Finance Office collaborated with the Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility, or CCSR. The interim body reports to the church’s Executive Council and helps guide church investment strategies and shareholder advocacy on a wide range of issues, from human trafficking and gun violence to Middle East peace.

“I am grateful that our church has followed through on this commitment to the care of God’s creation –this Earth we all share,” Sarah Lawton, the committee’s chair, said in a church news release. “In all our work, CCSR will continue to consider our investments in terms of our deeply held values as a church. We encourage other church bodies with investments to do so as well.”

Solar panels are seen installed on the roof of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Photo credit: Energy Independent Solutions

The Episcopal Church’s Finance Office manages a portfolio of investments that in recent years has totaled about $500 million in market value. After General Convention establishes the social policy positions of The Episcopal Church, Executive Council adopts investment-portfolio restrictions. In October, Executive Council approved an updated work plan for the Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility, to focus on areas that include human trafficking, immigration, Indigenous cultures, health care, climate change and diversity in corporate governance.

The divestment from companies in the fossil fuel industry is partly rooted in Resolution C045 adopted by the 78th General Convention in 2015. It called on the church to “divest from fossil fuel companies and reinvest in clean renewable energy in a fiscally responsible manner.” It encouraged all dioceses and congregations to consider doing the same.

“The Episcopal Church was an early leader in the global movement to consider ethical criteria and faith commitments, and also long-term risk assessments, in investment and portfolio decisions, starting with our work to oppose apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s,” Lawton told Episcopal News Service in an email. “It is good to see our church now put our money where our mouth is on this existential issue of climate change.”

She and the church news release also encouraged Episcopalians to learn more about these investing strategies by viewing “The CCSR Story,” a 30-minute documentary released in 2022 that chronicles the church’s efforts to align its financial investments with the values of Jesus Christ.

The committee’s work is just one way that the church lives into its Christian call to creation care, and supporting climate crisis solutions has become a central ministry priority, with churchwide leaders joining congregations and dioceses in promoting alternative energy.

The urgency of such efforts has only continued to increase as the world nations struggle to achieve voluntary goals, set in 2015 in the Paris Agreement, aimed at limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above preindustrial levels. An Episcopal delegation attended that United Nations summit in 2015, and since 2016, the church has held U.N. observer status, which allows delegations to brief U.N. representatives on General Convention’s climate resolutions and to attend meetings in the official zones.

The most recent Episcopal delegation left the United Nations’ 29th annual climate change conference, or COP29, disappointed with the end results, but they and other Episcopal leaders say they are ever more determined to advocate for policies that help mitigate climate change.

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.